He kissed her, sliding his tongue against hers while his hands went low, settling on her hips. “You still haven’t agreed to my terms,” he reminded her, his fingers exploring the string that spanned across her hip, slowly moving inward.
She moaned. “You don’t play fair.” Her movements were restless and frustrated.
“That’s what happens when the rules are relaxed,” he pointed out. “Tell me what I want to hear.”
“I’m in,” she said.
“A hundred percent?” he pressed.
She nodded. And he dipped a finger inside the edge of her bikini bottom. “You’ll stay,” he clarified. “Give me your word.”
“Jake,” she pushed her hips forward, encouraging him to move his hand lower. “I’ve already agreed.”
“Trust doesn’t come easily for me,” he admitted, his eyes locked on hers. “Say the words. I need to hear them.”
“You’re so bossy.” Heat flared in her eyes. “And demanding.”
He waited, his hands not moving.
“I’ll stay. You have my word,” she said and sealed their agreement with a kiss.
In response, he lifted her and guided her legs around his waist. He turned off the water and carried her into the house.
* * *
Inside, Jake walked directly to his bedroom, then set Soleil down. She put her mouth on his nipple and got her hands in the back of his dark swim shorts. While she worked his shorts over his hips, he untied the string at her neck, then the other one.
“You’re beautiful,” he said simply.
His shorts fell to his ankles. When he kicked them aside, Soleil took a step away because she had to look at him, and damn, incredible didn’t touch the surface. He had the muscled thighs of a swimmer, but narrow hips with diagonal lines that cut deep across his hips. His cock jutted toward her, long and thick. She went a little weak at the thought of him being inside her. He got close and pushed her bottoms over her hips. After she’d stepped out of them, he lifted her into his arms.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” she said, her hand on his face.
“If you’re having second thoughts, tell me now,” he said.
“No, none,” she said. “I made you a promise, but I can see I’ll have to convince you my word means something.” Soleil kissed him and laid her on the bed, then stretched out beside her.
She stroked his cock. “Tell me you have condoms,” she said.
He grasped her wrist. “I made you a promise too, to love you the way you deserved. You need to know I’m a man of my word. I plan to take my time.”
He raised her hands above her head, laced his fingers with hers and kissed her neck, paying attention to every inch of it before moving his lips along the top of her shoulder, then he lowered one arm and worked his way down her arm to her wrist. He lifted her hand and licked her palm. And just like that, her licking fantasy returned.
He was right there with her. “Earlier, you said something about imagining me licking you.” He touched his tongue to her wrist. “Was it something like this?”
She shook her head.
“No?” He put his mouth on the spot above her breast and licked her there. “Here?”
“No. But you’re getting closer.”
He nibbled his way to her breast. When he got close to her nipple, she arched her back, but he didn’t take it into his mouth. Instead, he licked it and blew on it.
“Here?” he asked.
Soleil moaned and tangled her legs with his. “No. But closer,” she repeated.
His cock lay heavy against her thigh, so she lifted her leg and moved to get him closer to where she wanted to feel it most. He held their hands beside her head now, their fingers still laced as he got to his knees between her legs and nudged them apart. He opened his mouth on her stomach and moved lower, kissing, licking, and nipping the skin, sucking it into his mouth. When he reached the bend of her leg above her thigh, she bit her lip hard. “Jake, please.”
“I’ve got you,” he said looking up at her.
He turned his head and nipped the tender skin of first one outer lip, then the other. He still held her hands, but they were closer to her waist now. But he released her to slide his thumbs along the outside of her crease, then open her. He stared at her so long she squirmed. He lowered his head, but stopped short. “Here?” he asked.
All she could do was nod.
He smiled and licked her. On contact, she arched off the bed, pressing herself into his mouth.
“Shh . . .” he said.
The air that came with the sound vibrated from her clit to her core. Every muscle in her body tightened in anticipation. The feel of his whiskers there made it feel so much hotter. He tongued her clit again and pulled her into his mouth, then eased a finger into her. “You’re so tight,” he said against her.
“It’s been awhile,” she admitted. It had actually been a damn long time, and he was killing her. “Jake, please. I need—”
“I know,” he said, cutting her off.
He slid another finger in and sucked hard on her clit. He moaned his pleasure as she came—or was that her making the sound? Her body vibrated with pleasure as he moved his fingers in and out of her. When she finally opened her eyes, he was watching her, smiling.
“That was a nice start,” he said and kissed her.
The taste of herself on his lips was intimate and erotic at the same time. She found his cock and stroked him. “We’re not done,” she said.
“No,” he agreed.
“Condom,” she prompted.
He kissed her again. “We’ve got time.”
She squeezed his balls and his cock jerked. “Or now’s good,” she said.
“I promised you slow,” he said.
She stroked him again and said, “Next time. I need you now.”
He got a condom from his nightstand. She took it from him, impatient, ripped it open, and rolled it onto him. He grasped his dick and slid it along her slick crease, using her juices as lube. With her body tight and needy for him, he guided his cock to her entrance. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t.”
He pressed his tip in and she lifted her hips, taking more of him in. He was so thick. It took a second for her to accommodate him, but it felt so good, she shuddered.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded and he pushed in further, but he waited, watching her.
She rotated her hips, smiling. “That feels incredible.”
“I’ve still got a few more inches to go.”
She relaxed her inner muscles and took him the rest of the way.
“My God,” he moaned against her neck.
And then he started to move, using long, controlled strokes designed to make her crazy. Her thighs tingled and her core felt like it was on fire. The short hair on his chest abraded her nipples upping the hot factor. She braced her hands on his shoulders, and picked up the pace, moving faster on him. He bent and took her nipple into his mouth, alternately biting, licking, and sucking it. Then he lifted her, and using his shoulders for leverage, they picked up the pace. His biceps bulged as he cupped her ass with both hands, lifting and lowering her. When she came, he shouted, coming hard with her, his balls slapping her ass with the force of his orgasm.
He eased her to the bed, then turned, holding her. “Wow,” he said, kissing her tenderly as they came back to earth. But her spasms went on and on, squeezing everything he had out of him. She was far from a virgin, but she’d never experienced anything close to this. “You’re magic, Jake Stanton. That was unbelievable.”
He smoothed a hand from her side to her hip. “You’re pretty amazing yourself.” He held her head, a look of concern on his face. “Did I hurt you?”
She laughed. “Did I sound like I was in pain? Thank God we came into the house. I know you live in the middle of nowhere, but I think the closest neighbor still would have heard me.” She kissed him and added, “I can’t wait to do this in the hammock.” A
nother kiss, and then, “On the beach and in the ocean.”
“I like the sound of that,” he said.
She kissed him again. She had to admit, she liked the idea of having time with no departure deadline looming.
After several moments of just staring at her, he lowered his head and pressed kisses across her cheek to her ear. “Thank you,” he said.
“For what?”
He rested his chin on her head and added, “This was pretty much the perfect first full morning of retirement.”
She hugged him tight. “We can do it again tonight . . . and tomorrow morning.”
“Yeah?”
She shrugged. “I mean, it’s hard to improve on perfect, but I think if we can manage to make it to shore with the paddle tomorrow, we’re there.”
He chuckled. “Beautiful, sexy, and a sense of humor? If that’s not the trifecta, I don’t know what is,” he said. “I’m in.”
“It’s a date,” she said.
“You know, I have a real shower here in the house, with hot water.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh,” he said. “I think Caroline may have even left shower gel and one of those scrunchie things.”
Soleil laughed. “That sounds nice, but there is one problem.”
He frowned. “What?”
“My clothes are at the camper. I can’t get dressed.”
Jake wrapped her up in a tight hug and frowned. “Is that a problem? I thought you liked being naked.”
She laughed. “In the moonlight, when I sleep, and when I do yoga,” she qualified.
“Now who has rules?” he asked.
“If I’m remembering correctly, you were set on getting my things and moving my van and camper up into your yard today.”
“Oh, right,” he said.
“And the sooner we get my things, the sooner we can have that shower,” she said.
“We?”
She kissed him and repeated. “We.”
He rolled out of bed, grabbed a pair of jeans and tossed her a t-shirt on his way to the bathroom. When he came back, she noticed he’d zipped the pants, but hadn’t bothered with buttoning them. He hadn’t bothered with a shirt either, and she was completely in favor of Jake shirtless.
5
When Jake stepped into the bedroom, he found Soleil still naked in his bed. “What’s the hold up?”
She stretched, still naked. “I feel so relaxed,” she said.
He leaned over and kissed her. “Get used to it because I plan to keep you that way.” He kissed her again, and this time, she came with him as he eased away because she didn’t want to break the contact. He grasped her hands and got her to the edge of the bed.
“I don’t mind if you don’t put the t-shirt on,” he said, looking at her. Soleil in a bikini had been hot, but Soleil naked? Mind-blowing.
She grabbed the soft, faded t-shirt and put it on, interrupting the fantasy of what he planned to do to her next. It said, “Go Army” on the front, and when she stood, it fell almost to her knees.
“Nice,” he said.
He stepped into sneakers, which made him ask, “Do you have shoes?”
“No, but I like going barefoot.”
“I have a better idea,” he said and turned, bending with his hands on his knees. “Hop on,” he said. Soleil laughed and jumped onto his back. “Hang on,” he said as she wound her hands around his neck.
Day one of retirement: hot, naked woman pressed up against him, holding on tight—check.
He started down the path to her camper.
She pressed her lips to the soft spot under his ear. “I like you, Jake Stanton. I like you a lot.”
He grinned, feeling like that guy in high school who’d just gotten the head cheerleader’s attention. “I like you, too,” he said.
“I’m glad we both came home at the same time so we could actually meet this time.”
Falling in with her easy banter, he added, “I’m glad I found you naked in my shower. That was a sweet welcome home present.”
She smacked his chest playfully, but Jake stopped short when he came into the clearing where her camper and van were parked. “Shit.”
“Oh no!”
Soleil slid down his back and ran to her camper. The contents were strewn everywhere: clothes, books, dishes, food, a laptop that looked like it had been mangled. The van hadn’t faired any better. He immediately went into Hawk-mode and scanned the area for any sign of the intruders. The tracks led south through the overgrowth. He ducked into her camper to get his gun, but he forgot he’d taken it to the house earlier. “Stay here,” he said before he started running. He felt naked and exposed without his gun, but he didn’t have time to retrieve it.
When he reached a fence marked “Wildlife Refuge—No Trespassing,” he stopped. No sign of anyone.
He turned and ran back to Soleil. He’d expected tears but found full-on fury.
“Mother fucking cock suckers,” she said.
He had to say he was damned impressed with her choice of curse words. “Your cameras?” he asked.
“Still in the safe, thank God.”
“They didn’t carry it away?” That surprised him.
“It’s mounted to the camper under my mattress. They’d have to take the camper to steal it. Jesus Christ . . .”
She ignored everything scattered across the ground except for the photos. The sepia images had been ripped and mangled. She sat, sadness transforming her face into something he never wanted to see again.
Jake sat in front of her. “I’m sorry.”
She stared at the ruined pictures around her.
“What did they take?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” With anger in her eyes, she looked up at him. “Why would someone do this?”
He had no idea, but he’d like to hunt down the fuckers and break one bone for every minute of anguish she suffered. But right now, he needed to think clearly. “Tell me about your work. Have you made enemies of anyone who’d want to see you hurt?”
Her blue eyes narrowed on him. “Of course. No one wants the things I photograph exposed. I go into an area quietly, like a tourist, careful to blend in, do the job, and get out. By the time my work is published, I’m long gone.”
“What types of assignments do you do?” He picked up a few pieces of the photos around them, trying to get an idea about exactly what she did. Children—women and young girls in burkas, rice fields, jungle.
“Human trafficking and the drug trade in Mexico and Central America, female education and genital mutilation in the Middle East, and the opium crisis in Southeast Asia,” she ticked off the topics like she was reading Time Magazine’s table of contents.
“Jesus Christ. Any number of people could want you dead.” Holy fuck. Anyone from cartels to religious extremists could be after her.
“No,” she shook her head. “I focus on the victims, not the oppressors. I don’t expose criminals.”
“But your work does,” he said.
“Maybe, but how would anyone know I’m here?”
“You’re not exactly hiding out,” he said.
She stood. “We’re in the middle of nowhere,” she pointed out. With a hand to her forehead, she added, “No one knew I would be here.”
Jake stood, too. She seemed genuinely confused.
“There has to be another explanation. I mean, I’ve been here a couple of days, and there was no problem until you got here. They could be looking for you.”
“Not likely.” But it was a possibility. He could have the same people after him. But then, they would’ve trashed his house, not her campsite.
She grabbed a pair of shorts and put them on, then spotted her phone, and walked over to it. “Great.”
He could see the screen was cracked, and that she couldn’t get it to power on.
“Who were you going to call?”
“I think we should call the police, don’t you?”
“Yes,” he agreed. And he needed his gu
n. “Let’s walk up to the house.”
As they moved along the path, he said, “Has anything like this ever happened before?”
“No. Never.” She shook her head. “Well, there was the one time my camera was stolen, when I was staying at a campground in Alaska. That’s why I had the safe installed.”
“What was your last job?”
She got quiet. Inside the house, he took her hand and led her into the bedroom where his cell and gun were. She sat on the bed. Maybe she was going into shock.
When he had his sidearm and the phone, he sat next to her. “Soleil? You didn’t answer my question.”
“I know,” she said, not looking at him.
He took her hand. “Talk to me.”
“I got a lead on these girls from Bogotá who were recruited to America to go to college. When they arrived here, they learned they’d been lied to. They were forced into prostitution and told to cooperate or their families would be killed.”
“Bastards,” he said under his breath. “But they’d gotten out when you interviewed with them, right?”
She looked at him and he knew the answer before she said it. “No. I spoke to the girl. She got me into where they lived. I shot the conditions of their rooms, took long-range shots of them working. It turned my stomach, Jake.”
“How did you avoid the men they worked for?” God, they could have taken her or worse.
“And it’s not always men,” she said, “and I’m good at blending in.”
He couldn’t imagine that to be true, so he asked, “You wear a disguise?”
“Yes. I change my hair, wear contacts, dress like the locals, use prosthetics to look different.”
He took that in, then said, “Did something go wrong on that job?”
She chewed her lower lip.
“I need you to tell me, Soleil. I promise I’ll keep you safe.”
“I was never in any danger.” She hesitated, then said, “But the girl I featured, Rosa, was found dead. After the story ran.”
He pulled her into his arms and held her tight. “Is that why you came home?”
She shrugged. “I figured photographing manatees should be safe enough.”
After several moments had passed, he eased her away and framed her face with his hands. “Do you have a copy of the story?”
Brotherhood Protectors: Exposed (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Scandalous Moves Book 4) Page 5